To get started making your parenting plan, you should first look at some common parenting plan templates. Here are some types of common templates that can give you a foundation for making the rest of your plan.
1. A joint legal and physical custody template. This is a type of shared parenting plan. With a joint legal and physical custody plan, both parents have the children live with them for significant periods of time (these exact arrangements are based on the needs of the children and not on giving the parents equal time) and both parents make decisions for and are involved with the children. To make this kind of plan, it works best if the mother and father can sit down together and agree on the plan.
2. A joint legal and sole physical custody template. In this plan, the parents share the responsibility of making decisions for the children (legal custody) but the child lives primarily with one parent and visits the other parent. This type of plan works if one parent is the primary caretaker of the children but the other parent still wants access to records and wants to be involved with the children.
3. A sole legal and physical custody template. With this arrangement, one parent has all legal responsibility for the children and makes all of the decisions for them. The parents also live with this parent and visit the other parent. This template is not a very good one if both parents are involved in the child’s life. In cases of domestic violence and crime, this is the template the parents usually follow.